Get Started

Hundreds of colleges, universities and organizations have created learning immersive learning environments and communities in Second Life. Many educators are committed to helping each other learn how to maximize participation. Whether your group is looking to develop new space from the ground up or explore existing content, we recommend following that you check out the Resources section of this website to learn the basics and find collaborators and resources to get you started.

Whether you're new to Second Life, interested in bringing your class into Second Life for an inworld field trip, or building an inworld campus, we have the information to help you get going.

It’s Time to Try Learning in Second Life

We understand that working in Second Life, or any virtual world, is a new experience for most organizations. So, we’re here to make it as easy as possible. Here’s the step-by-step guide to help you get started.

Confirm Access to Second Life
Many organizations have strict firewall policies that prevent Second Life from running on enterprise or government computers. As a first step, you should contact your IT department and find out whether your firewall will accept a UDP protocol. If not, then we encourage you to work with your technology team to authorize the Second Life stream into your network. If they have questions about Second Life security, point them to this article on security in Second Life.

Additionally, Second Life runs best on newer computers with advanced graphics cards. To learn more about specific system requirements, click here.

Join Second Life
It’s simple and free. Just go to the Join Now page and register. You’ll need to choose a standard avatar, an inworld name, and provide basic contact information so that we can confirm your registration by email.

Download the Second Life Viewer
The Second Life Viewer is a small piece of software that is your window into Second Life. You can think of it like your supercharged browser for a 3D environment.

Plug in Your Headset
Second Life supports both text chat and spatial voice. So, if you have a headset with a microphone, go ahead and plug it into your computer before you login. Of course, Second Life works just fine if you don’t have a headset, but working in Second Life is a much richer, more effective experience when you can and your colleagues can talk to one another.

Login and Begin on Welcome Island
When you enter Second Life for the first time, you land on Welcome Island, or an orientation experience. Since this is your first time inworld, understand that it will look and feel unfamiliar to you. You will notice a few things—that you have an avatar and that you might be confused about what to do next. Follow the simple activities on Welcome Island, which are designed to help you get started.

Design Your Avatar
An avatar is a virtual representation of you. Using your basic avatar that you chose during registration as a starting point—you can then change nearly every element of your appearance from body size to hair color to clothing. To learn more about how to customize your avatar, click here. Once you become more familiar with Second Life, you can also purchase new skins, clothes, and accessories on the Second Life Marketplace to continue to personalize your inworld appearance.

Learn how to Operate Second Life
Getting started in Second Life can be challenging at first, but we’ve created a Quickstart Guide to get you ready for work quickly. Additionally, the best and most current resource for beginners to Second Life is in the Support section.

Explore Educator Locations in Second Life
Second Life has many public business and government regions for you to explore. The Destination Guide is a great place to start to explore educator locations and other interesting places in Second Life.

We Can Help

We’re always here if you have any questions or would like advice, recommendations, or support.

Clients are Saying

"In a live videoconference, I could make a gesture and you'd see that, but we're still not together. We're not affecting each other's space. In Second Life, we... experience things together."